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ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) -- Buffalo Bills reserve tight end Kevin Everett had surgery Sunday after injuring his spine on a kickoff against the Denver Broncos, and there is concern about whether he will be able to walk again.

"He's had some sparse movement," Everett's agent Brian Overstreet told The Associated Press in a phone interview late Sunday.

"The next couple of days is going to be critical," said Overstreet, responding to a question about paralysis. "Our concern is for him to come out of this healthy and, hopefully, be able to walk again."

Overstreet said Everett came out of a "lengthy surgery" Sunday evening and the plan was for his mother, Patricia Dugas, to arrive from Texas on Monday.

Everett fell to the ground and never moved after a helmet-to-helmet hit when he tackled Denver's Domenik Hixon during a kickoff to open the second half. Everett was placed on a backboard with his head and body immobilized, and carefully loaded into an ambulance at the Broncos 30.

The game was delayed for about 15 minutes, and the Bills gathered at the sideline while doctors attended to the player.

At 9:45 p.m., as he was leaving Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital, Bills' tight end Ryan Neufeld told Buffalo's WIVB-TV the surgery "went well as far as we can tell and he's recovering right now."

Bills general manager Marv Levy said doctors informed the team that it's too early to determine the severity of the injury and they will know more after monitoring the player overnight.

"Certainly, we feel the injury is serious, but I don't want to speculate, and that's what the doctors told us," Levy told The Associated Press. "They told us to wait to hear from them before making any speculative announcement."

Coach Dick Jauron said immediately following the game that the player sustained a cervical spine injury, but wouldn't discuss the severity of the injury.

treiz wrote:I heard he's walking again on Madden radio .

The Buffalo Bills' Kevin Everett sustained a "catastrophic" and life-threatening spinal-cord injury and his chances of regaining a full range of body motion are very small, an orthopedic surgeon said Monday.

"A best-case scenario is full recovery, but not likely," Dr. Andrew Cappuccino said, one day after performing a four-hour operation on the player. "I believe there will be some permanent neurological paralysis. ... A full neurological recovery was bleak, dismal."

Cappuccino noted the 25-year-old reserve tight end did have touch sensation throughout his body and also showed signs of movement.

Special to PA SportsTicker

ORCHARD PARK, New York (Ticker) - Buffalo Bills reserve tight end Kevin Everett suffered a "potentially lethal injury" in the season-opening game against the Denver Broncos, according to his surgeon on Monday.

The 25-year-old Everett had emergency neck surgery at Millard Fillmore Hospital on Sunday following his injury.


"He is not in a coma, but a deeply drug-induced state," said Dr. Andrew Cappuccino, who is caring for the player.

Everett was taken off the field on a stretcher after colliding with Broncos returner Domenik Hixon during the second-half kickoff.

Dr Cappuccino said at a press conference Monday: "We commenced resuscitation in the ambulance. We commenced flushing his body with cold fluids to lower his temperature. Time was of the essence.

"Urgent decompressive surgery was needed. (After the operation) he was taken to intensive care and was on a respirator and, as we speak, is still on the respirator. He has been provided with every mechanism to allow the swelling to go down in his spinal cord."

The rapid response by the medical team has led to some encouraging early signs.

"He was assessed neurologically this morning and he had the ability to feel all his limbs," Dr. Cappuccino said. "This young man suffered a potentially lethal injury. He will be controlled for 48-72 hours. It was a potentially catastrophic injury.

Asked if Everett was out of danger of losing his life, Dr. Cappuccino said: "He is not out of that danger - he is less in that danger. Any injury at this level often can lead to respiratory collapse. You can die from respiratory failure."

Bills team doctor John Marzo said at the press conference: "Kevin suffered a contact injury, striking a player while making a tackle. When we arrived he was conscious and alert but unable to move his extremities. We began rehearsed protocols for extricating a player with that sort of injury.

"We were careful in positioning Kevin and immobilizing him on a spineboard. He underwent urgent imaging studies which confirmed our fears of a fractured dislocation of the cervical spine and injury to the spinal chord."

Earlier, Bills coach Dick Jauron said the team was hoping and praying Everett fully recovers.

"We are anticipating the best outcome and our thoughts are with him," Jauron said at a press conference.

"We are never forgetting Kevin and we are never getting him out of our thoughts and prayers. You do go on, you do move forward, without him leaving your thoughts. They are a solid group of guys, they like each other, they work hard, they play hard. It is part of the game and we all understand it."

It appeared to be a freak injury for Everett, who slammed into Hixon as the return man hit the wedge and broke his tackle.

Everett immediately fell to the turf and appeared to lose consciousness before being transported off the field by ambulance.

"It was a difficult day regarding Kevin's injury and how that affects everyone in the stadium and our team," Jauron added. "Our thoughts are with Kevin and his family. Kevin understands that and it is what Kevin chooses to do too. One of the great things is that when you have a team you have a real closeness. It grows through time and there is a risk involved.

"It is a dangerous game and we saw that. It happened right in front of us. We are hoping for the best outcome here."

A third-round pick out of Miami in 2005, the 6-4, 253-yard Everett missed that entire first season with a knee injury.

In 2006, Everett played primarily on special teams. He has just one career reception for one yard.

Everett's injury is the second recent NFL-related blow to the Kilgore community. DuBois also worked at Kilgore helping tutor Thomas Herrion, the offensive lineman who went on to the University of Utah and the San Francisco 49ers. Herrion died at age 23 of heart failure following a 2005 exhibition game.

Davis, who finally got to have Ev